Talk:XG-70 Susanoo/@comment-122.106.128.207-20131206012012/@comment-24.212.233.215-20131206075331
The Dendrobium would perform rather poorly against BETA for a number of reasons (and rather "well" given one crucial loophole). Firstly, the Dendrobium is basically a slightly more "realistic" (in so far as anything from a mecha anime can be considered realistic) Macross veritech fighter in that it actually makes sense for it to have a bajillion missiles (seeing as how the thing's something like a third-to-half the size of a battleship). Aside from the pods containing equipment for the Stamen (which are all basically comparable to standard TSF gear) the Dendrobium's primary armaments are a bunch of missile pods, this strange explosive chain thing (which never made sense to me since no space force should ever be flying in a close formation that puts more than two or three units on the same plane), mega beam sabers, and finally the mega beam cannon. The missile pods and the chain thing are essentially useless against BETA because the laser-types will snipe the pods down before they can actually release their payloads (the Dendrobium's missile pods are designed to be launched a lot further than the XG-70's largely because the Dendribum's missile pods tend to be omni-directional and thus hazardous to the Dendrobium itself where as the XG-70 fires a far shorter range missile meant for the relative close quarters combat of a hive), and even if they do release their payloads the general yield of each pod is less than a saturation bombing from a naval/orbital fleet (also keep in mind that the Dendrobium's missile pods are more effective in a three dimensional environment as opposed to a two dimensional ground only force so the Orchis is almost never going to get a very good angle of attack to maximize it's load out potential). The mega beam cannon on the other hand would do fairly well, however unlike the Susanoo's particle cannon, which is in effect a massive AOE attack, the beam cannon's essentially just a Magnus Lux which while highly useful isn't comparable, and at best would be similar to something like the Susanoo's rail guns. The beam sabers would be marginally useful if you manage to NOE flight the Dendrobium and scythe through the BETA but if you've got mega beam sabers you're going to be more effective just mounting the things on a TSF/Gundam, adding on an extended battery pack, and having said mecha just stand in front of the BETA and wave it around. The beam sabers, as shown with the Dendrobium in action, are primarily meant for combat against battleships; they're fairly marginal against anything smaller due to their ability to dodge. The only thing that makes the Dendrobium "highly capable" against BETA is that it mounts an I-Field generator which "bends lasers" which would effectively render it capable of flying around a battlefield infested with BETA and perform hit and run attacks with relative impunity (provided the pilot isn't stupid enough to let a Fort-class get close enough to destroy said generator and Minovsky particle based technology works on BETA lasers). Ultimately though the Dendrobium Orchis, as is the case with most Rule of Cool weapons, is ridiculously impractical (much like the Susanoo itself) and you could achieve similar results against the BETA with existing technology and tactics. The Dendrobium's primary strength is high speed maneuverability which is really only possible because it's a spaceship/mobile armor designed solely for operation in space; this counts a negative against it when combating BETA since that speed won't be applicable within a hive (which the XG-70 was designed to assault on it's own, hence it's relatively slow speed and significantly longer lasting arsenal). In the open, when compared to the Susanoo, it's also just less effective given that it's weapon loadout isn't as impressive as the Susanoo's and it's defensive capabilities are also lesser (the I-Field only applies to laser weapons where as the Rutherford Field blocks everything) and while it could arguably be far more maneuverable than the Susanoo, the XG-70 negates this by being so ridiculously overpowered and indestructible that it doesn't need to care about maneuverability since it can simply kill everything in front of it. As for your idea, assuming by particle beam cannon you're referring to the XG-70's primary weapon, if it has that why would it need anything else? Why would it need two for that matter? A particle cannon's nearly the same as dropping a g-bomb which is going to annihilate everything within a few kilometers. Provided the 00 Unit attached to the Moorcock-Lechte engine's working properly (which Alternative's never really was until the end) a single particle cannon can "reload" within a couple minutes which isn't enough time for a BETA horde to clear a hive and then rush to engage a particle cannon firing at near maximum range. Furthermore why would you need two of them when they'd both be attached to the same engine and the particle cannon hasn't shown any problems with firing repeatedly? And if you have two engines why would you shove them both into the same unit instead of having two invincible nuke cannons providing support fire for one another in different locations? If you've perfected the technology needed to fire a particle cannon reliably you can sit on the edge of the horizon (or whatever the effective maximum range is) with your Rutherford Field up and just repeatedly bombard a hive into non-existence; you effectively don't need anything else if your objective is to just destroy the BETA. The Stab too deep for a shot at ground level to penetrate? No problem, the Moorcock-Lechte engine also allows whatever it's mounted on to float up and down allowing for a staggered rise-fire method until you do wipe out the reactor or annhilate enough BETA that conventional forces can move in and seize control. And before you ask what the point of the Susanoo was, keep in mind it was built during the early phase of the war (it is built on the principles of a 1st generation TSF, just scaled up to a thousand) before much was understood about anti-BETA tactics and the primary answer was attempting overwhelming fire. Yuuko on the other hand only wanted the Rutherford Field to ensure that the 00 Unit reached the reactor/Superior safetly (and later on, having discovered the nature of the Superior, the particle cannon to annihilate it); since it required so much space they kept the weapons and added more because, well, if you've got extra space to burn why not? Arguably they were also included as Task Force A-01 was running low on pilots to provide the necessary support so weapons were added in proportion to missing support units.